Halloween DIY projects

I've really enjoyed my "seven posts in seven days" challenge so far, but Dan and I are going to a movie in a few minutes, so this one is going to be less writing (but more pictures!)

I got a little bit crafty when I came home from school today by trying a few Halloween decoration projects. First, I bought two pumpkins and gave them a spooky makeover by spraying them with chalkboard paint I had leftover from this project.


I put the biggest one on my mantle and wrote on it with my chalkboard pen:


Kinda fun, right? :)

The smaller one is now in my kitchen with this message:
Sorry for the lousy picture quality, but, trust me, they came out cute!

Then, I made some DIY art for my mantle by printing out framing photos from the movie The Birds by Hitchcock.
I love the old-fashioned horror movie vibe that is going on in my living room right now!

Lastly, I tried to replicate YHL's gourds. That, however, did not go as well. Here's what their gourd project looked like:

Photo via here.

They almost look like porcelain, don't they?

And here's how mine looked after three tries at spray painting:

Not a fan! The paint was dripping, cracking, and peeling off. I ended up trashing them, since I have plenty of other decor already. Who knew that a simple spray painting project was best left to the professional decorators??

Anyhoo, I'm still waiting for the candlestick I ordered to come in before I show the whole Halloween shebang, but it's coming soon!

Via here.

I'm off to the movies; Dan and I have been on a roll with picking great ones lately (The Social Network last weekend and The Town a few weeks before that). Here's to hoping tonight's is good too!

Living Room Updates

Our living room is sorta like my black sweatpants: comfortable, easy to hang out in for hours...but kinda fugly. In fact, it may be the room that gets on my nerves the most out of all of them in my house. You know when you keep second guessing a decor decision? That's me all the time. I'm over the green couch, the mustard walls, the damask-print, heavy rug. It just doesn't feel like my aesthetics at all, despite the fact that I picked out everything.

This summer, I added a few things in my living room to make it a little more modern and bright. It's still not my favorite room in my house (far from it!), but I feel like the little changes made somewhat of a difference.

Here's my living room before, with the dark rug and pillows:


And here it is with a few upgrades (rug, throw pillows, coffee table):

I'm pretty pleased with the results!

While we can't afford a new couch, I feel like the new throw pillows (from Tonic Living) help make the puke-green, wrinkly old one a little easier on the eyes.


We bought the coffee table at Crate and Barrel and after three straight days of trying to put it together, were finally able to! It was a decent bargain for such a high end store, and I love having somewhere to display the albums I made on Shutterfly of our family adventures. (If you are not into scrapbooking and want to preserve your photos, I definitely recommend making an album on Shutterfly. They almost look like professional coffee table books.)


I didn't do much with the mantle, but since I'm going to changing it up for fall soon, I thought I would share what I had going on this summer.

Here was the mantle before, too empty and too symmetrical:

Here it is after a bit of rearranging and adding a plant:




Definitely not a makeover of any kind, but I was happy with my minor upgrades! Still on my wishlist: replacing the couch, removing the brass from around the fireplace, buying side tables and lamps, and re-painting the walls a lighter color.

Oh, and I'll be decking out my house for Halloween sometime this week, so swing back by if you'd like to check out my spooky mantle and tablescape. :)